1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a connection structure of an electronic component and a wired circuit board, a wired circuit board assembly, and a method for testing an electronic component. To be specific, the present invention relates to a connection structure of an electronic component such as a head slider and a wired circuit board such as a suspension board with circuits; a wired circuit board assembly including the connected electronic component and wired circuit board; and a method for testing an electronic component.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, in magnetic recording on a hard disk, a head slider on which a magnetic reading device and a magnetic writing device (magnetic head) are mounted has been used.
The head slider is mounted, for example, on a suspension board with circuits. The terminal of the magnetic head mounted on the head slider is electrically connected to the conductive pattern of the suspension board with circuits, and the head slider floats, resisting to air flow generated upon relative operation of the suspension board with circuits and the hard disk, so as to maintain a small gap therebetween. Magnetic recording by the magnetic head on the hard disk is allowed in this fashion.
As a method for connecting a head slider to a conductive pattern, for example, a following method has been proposed: a conductive layer is provided on a metal substrate with an insulating layer interposed therebetween to serve as a circuit pattern; an end face of the patterning end portion of the circuit pattern is formed to coincide with the end face of the insulating layer, or formed to be projected toward a distal end direction over the end face of the insulating layer; and the patterning end portion and the terminal of the magnetic head are electrically connected with a solder ball (for example, see Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2006-120288).
Meanwhile, recently, there has been a demand for such a hard disk that floating characteristics of the head slider be retained, and the storage capacity of hard disks be increased. Therefore, a high density hard disk drive is required, i.e., more terminals are included in the head slider without increasing the size of the head slider.
Defective products are generated sometimes in production steps of a head slider that is compatible with a high density hard disk drive. Therefore, in production of head sliders, usually, electrical characteristics and floating characteristics of head sliders are tested, and non-defective products are sorted out from defective products.
As an example of such testing of head sliders, a method of testing a head slider has been proposed (for example, see Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2007-128634). In this method, a test head suspension assembly including a slider, a suspension having a suspension trace, and a supporting structure that supports the slider is prepared; the slider and the suspension trace are directly connected with solder and the like; and electrical characteristics and floating characteristics are tested.
In the method described in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2007-128634, the solder used for the connection of the slider and the suspension trace is re-melted and removed; and then the slider is taken out from the test head suspension assembly.
Then, those sliders determined to be defective products in the testing are discarded by themselves without being mounted on a suspension board with circuits, while only those sliders determined to be non-defective products are mounted on a suspension board with circuits.